Garden hoses made of various forms of rubber and plastic are generally provided with so-called male and female end couplers by which the hoses are connected to one another, to faucets or spigots supplying liquid thereto, and to nozzles, sprinklers, etc. for dispensing the liquid. On currently marketed hoses such couplers, which are permanently affixed to the hose ends during production of the hose assembly, commonly comprise threaded male and female couplers, made of brass or the like, which include a ferrule placed over the outer end of the hose. A cylindrical tail piece, again of brass or the like, is introduced into the hose end and permanently expanded outwardly to urge the hose into liquid-tight engagement with the ferrule.
The male couplers fabricated of strip metal have certain disadvantages. These metallic couplers have been found to be relatively costly to fabricate and assemble. Both the material itself and the forming process are comparatively expensive. In order to economically manufacture the metallic couplers, the couplers have been stamped from annealed brass stock. Such metallic couplers are also susceptible to being permanently deformed or crushed under heavy loads, such as when run over by an automobile tire, and thus made unusable.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to employ the combined benefits of both the cylindrical tail piece formed of brass strip material, for example, for reception within the end of a garden hose; and a threaded fitting formed of machineable stock.